"I think the Minister has taken the right action here in trying to look at alternatives to try and improve road safety."

The committee will still table a report to parliament.

The Road Safety Advisory Council's John Gledhill says the decision flies in the face of national and international road safety research.

He has questioned whether the government is putting popularity ahead of public safety.

"Pretty much everywhere where speed limits have been reduced there is a correlating downward trend in serious crash injuries," he said.

"I'm certainly disappointed because there's been a lot of work gone into this and the evidence is very compelling that suggests that the changes would reflect a big downward turn in serious crash injuries."

Public backlash prompts policy reversal

Mr O'Byrne says the government has listened to public feedback and taken action.

"It's become very clear to us that such a major change has not got the support of the Tasmanian community," he said.

Mr O'Byrne was sticking to plans to cut the limits at the Infrastructure Estimates Hearings last month, despite resistance from local government and the state opposition.

The policy reversal only applies to sealed roads, and plans to reduce the speed limit on unsealed roads to 80 kilometres an hour are still going ahead.

The Minister confirmed the government will continue to roll out a major education campaign and will work with local communities and councils to keep the roads safe.

“We’ve achieved a 33 per cent reduction in serious casualty crashes over the last five years, however too many crashes continue to occur on rural roads.

“While the original recommendation from the Road Safety Advisory Council was for a blanket reduction, instead we’ve been working and consulting with communities and looking at roads on a case-by-case basis.

“Without community backing for this approach we know it will not keep Tasmanians safe on our roads and could in fact put drivers at risk.”

Mr O’Byrne said a public education campaign to alert motorists to drive to the conditions would start later this year.

The opposition's Peter Gutwein says the whole policy was a result of the Government being out of touch.

"This was always bad policy, we've said that from day one."

Councils call for education

The Local Government Association has welcomed the State Government's decision not to reduce speed limits on all sealed rural roads, but is also questioning why it is pushing ahead with a similar plan for unsealed roads.

"There are some gravel roads that are in very good condition and you can drive quite safely at speeds in excess of 80 kilometres per hour," he said.

Drivers need to be trained on how to drive and how to control the motor vehicle in circumstances when they are on gravel roads."

The RACT's Harvey Lennon says the blanket approach would have lowered the speed limit on many main roads, such as the East Coast's Tasman Highway, and many people would simply have ignored it.

"The community wasn't satisfied that the approach being proposed was going to work on our roads in our state," he said.

"There's a lot of personal responsibility attached to driving as well and we understand that the Government is going to ramp up its driver education campaign to encourage people to drive responsibly and we fully support that move."

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.